Casey’s Story: “FareStart opens the door and allows people to come home.”

Casey (she/her) is a graduate of FareStart who rewrote her own story. 

Like many people who come to FareStart, she has experienced considerable trauma in her life --- but ultimately Casey is a fighter and a survivor. When she ended up being incarcerated she decided “you have to fight Casey your story doesn’t end here.”

Casey heard about FareStart’s culinary program and recalls, “It was a lot of work to dare to dream again, and I just knew that I wanted the opportunity to give back. FareStart offered an opportunity to be reentered into society, learn a skill and culinary trade, and give back to the community.” So that’s exactly what Casey did.

After being released, she enrolled into FareStart's program and began transforming her life while learning culinary skills.

“I can’t even explain the feeling of walking into FareStart a light went on, hearing the stories and seeing the photos of faces of graduates before me knowing this is where my story would take a turn from being dark to light. The brokenness washed away, and the past didn’t matter, that’s when I knew I was home at FareStart.”

After graduating from the program Casey began working in the culinary field until FareStart’s community began calling her back again --- this time as a staff member.

“FareStart has all these amazing chefs who will believe in you long enough until you can maybe start believing in yourself. FareStart opens the door and allows people to come home, to be connected again to not be ashamed of who they are but to be excited about who they want to become, and to allow their full story to bloom to operate in their greatness."

Casey is a beautiful testament to the power of the human spirit and her story keeps unfolding in wonderful ways. We are excited to say that she was recently promoted to Kitchen Production Trainer where she’ll be working more closely with students.

Watch Casey’s story (please note that her story contains content some viewers may find sensitive):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCcE4KsKT-M